Your first weeks in England: NIN, GP, bank and council tax in the right order

Whoever comes from the Netherlands automatically looks for the municipal counter after landing — and in England it doesn't exist. The UK has no population register and no duty to register; the British statistics office ONS itself says the country has "no comprehensive or mandatory population registration". Instead of one registration you arrange four separate things, each with its own body. This is the order that works.

Your share code: the little key to everything

Your residence status is an eVisa in your UKVI account, and everything that asks for proof runs through a share code you create there: your employer uses it to check your right to work (compulsory — skipping it can cost the employer up to £60,000 per employee), your landlord your right to rent. A code is valid for ninety days and can be reused without limit; simply make a new one when it expires. You can already set this up from the Netherlands.

National Insurance Number — but don't wait for it

The NIN is your citizen service number for work and tax. You can apply only online and only once you're already in the UK; you prove your identity with your passport (uploading a photo of yourself with your passport) and after that it can take up to four weeks. Two things to know: you may simply start working before the NIN arrives — after all, you show your right to work with your share code — and apply for it exclusively via GOV.UK; commercial sites charge money for an application you do yourself in a quarter of an hour.

The GP: registering without papers

This is the pleasantest counter in England: anyone can register with a GP practice free of charge, and the NHS explicitly adds that you need to show no ID, no proof of address and no immigration status. Nor do you need an NHS number yet. Do this in your first week — not only when something is wrong with you, because the waiting time for a first appointment tends to grow. Hospital care and the GP are free (your Immigration Health Surcharge was already paid with the visa); prescriptions in England cost £9.90 per item, and whoever uses medication structurally saves with a prepayment certificate (£114.50 for twelve months, unlimited prescriptions).

Bank account and council tax

For an ordinary account banks ask for identity and proof of your British address — awkward if you don't have a permanent home yet. Good to know: nine large banks (including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest) are legally obliged to offer a basic bank account, free of charge and without an overdraft, for whoever lives legally in the UK and doesn't have an account yet. That puts you in a stronger position than begging for an exception.

As soon as you have a home, you report to the council for the council tax — the local tax, which is calculated per dwelling on the basis of the sale value the house had on 1 April 1991 (really), divided into bands A to H. If you live alone, apply for the single person discount of 25% — in England discounts never come by themselves. And if you watch TV or use BBC iPlayer: the TV licence still exists and costs £180 a year.

What you don't have to do — and one thing to know

You don't have to "register as a resident" anywhere, and no letter will come to remind you — it grows on you by itself. One thing to know, though: voting in local elections is not on for Dutch citizens arriving now. That right now applies only to EU citizens from countries with a voting treaty (the Netherlands isn't one of them) or to whoever already lived in the UK before the end of 2020. For the Dutch elections you simply remain a voter — register once for that as a voter abroad with the municipality of The Hague.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but then for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to England.